Always With a Smile: Putting a real bounce into football

This month a dozen ‘smilers’ from all
over the country travelled to the Springs Leisure Centre in Sheffield to take part in a charity Bubbleball match, in association with Thunderballz - the UK’s premier Bubbleball supplie

The Always With a Smile philosophy has
evolved into a concept by which other people can be motivated to join in and do something that they had never before considered.

This month a dozen ‘smilers’ from all
over the country travelled to the Springs Leisure Centre in Sheffield to take part in a charity Bubbleball match, in association with Thunderballz - the UK’s premier Bubbleball supplier.

Bubbleball
is the latest extreme sport to hit the uk, and it perfectly combines the games of five-a-side football and ice-hockey, by encasing each player in a large inflatable bubble.

In
doing so, a brutal yet hillarious contest has been created! Each player
is strapped into an appropriately sized bubble through a rucksack-styled harness, and is able to grip two handles which are positioned at chest height inside the ball.

The
harness allows for players to run (or at least waddle) around the playing area, while the handles are there to act as a brace for collisions...and that is undoubtedly what this game is all about!

To start each match the football is placed in the centre of the playing area, with each team lined up along its own goal-line.

With
a countdown of three, two, one, a blast on the referee’s whistle results in a cavalry charge involving all players towards the football.

As
players approach the centre-line some actually go for the football but,
as you quickly learn in the gladiatorial Bubbleball arena, winning the collision is more inportant than winning the ball.

At
times it really is a case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object and in such cases following the impact all that can be seen are two helpless souls either flying through the air or bouncing along the ground, their marbles well and truly shaken.

On
other occasions it can more aptly be described as a 10-pin bowling alley, with a single wrecking-ball scattering all players (teammates as well as opposition) like pins on a strike.

And
don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s the men who bully and dominate proceedings...in the game of Bubbleball there is no weaker sex.

Head-on
collisions, though more forceful, can be foreseen and the impact anticipated. Blows from the side or from behind come unexpectedly, and whereas one moment you might be thinking you’re in on goal, the next you’re demolished by a epic smash from nowhere, your feet above your head.

Other than the ringing in your ears, all you can hear are the howls of laughter from those watching the carnage.

If the destructive nature of this crash-crazy spectacle doesn’t finish you off, then fatigue certainly will.

After
just a few minutes of game-time, nearly every player is gasping for air
in this truly exhausting activity. Luckily, unlimited substitutions are allowed during matches and between games the guys at Thunderballz organise some less strenuous (but equally hilarious) activities for those who still have the energy to place one foot in front of the other.

One game, appropriately described as ‘the jam in the doughnut’ game, involves a person being strapped into a bubble while their team mates roll them up and down the playing area, leaving them totally disorientated and dizzy. Arguably the
most popular activity between matches however, at least for those watching, was Bubbleball chicken - where two players stand at opposite ends of the arena and charge in a concussive winner takes all encounter.

While
Bubbleball might sound like a recipe for whiplash or dislocation, risks
are in reality quite minimal. After more than an hour of game-time, and
hundreds and hundreds of collisions, each and every ‘smiler’ that took part walked away laughing and joking about the havoc and slaughter they had just experienced...with maybe just the odd bruise or two.

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